Task force on the front line to stop predators from sharing child porn

2013-08-26T22:19:13Z2013-08-26T22:41:52Z

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) -

With thousands of images and videos being shared each day across our state, officials in South Carolina say child pornography is becoming an epidemic.

Children who aren't yet able to walk or talk are becoming victims at an alarming rate.

It's people like Deb Shupe, the commander of South Carolina's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, who are on the front lines.

But the battle against child pornography is changing as victims are getting younger.

The type of child porn we are seeing is becoming more and more intense and more graphic. It's involving younger and younger children, even to the point of toddlers and infants.

Shupe says that's because offenders feel anonymous online by using just an IP address of numbers and letters.

The Internet Crimes Task Force works directly with 45 law enforcement agencies across the state. Sgt. Kevin Murphy is their go-to-guy in Berkeley County.

Over the last five years, he's seen a transformation. From chat rooms to social networks, from teenagers to toddlers.

"You know the term, I've seen it all," Murphy said."I've seen things that aren't physically possible of people doing things with children."

Murphy says this new trend, infants being sexually molested, is the most disturbing thing he's ever seen. In the three years between 2009 and 2011, 151 children under the age of four have been forcibly raped in South Carolina.

In 2010, three of those victims were under a year old. The numbers are staggering.